Panther Boys Now 4-4

The Pahranagat Valley High School boys went 2-2 at the Comstock Classic in Virginia City Dec. 6-8. Stockton Maxwell led the way for the Panthers, scoring 93 points in the team’s four games.

It’s only the second time in recent memory that a Panther player has scored that many points in a weekend. Previously, Kalee Whipple scored 99 points for the girls team in five games that covered an eight-day period in January 2004, Whipple’s sophomore year.

The boys began the tourney with a 56-39 win over McDermitt. Maxwell led the team with 22 points. Kyler Martin contributed 14 points.

Pahranagat lost their games on Saturday. They dropped a 41-36 decision to Battle Mountain and 55-42 to Sierra Lutheran.

Maxwell scored 20 points against the Longhorns in the loss. Martin and Izzy Riera chipped in six points apiece.

This game was also a tale of two halves. Battle Mountain built a 19-10 halftime lead. Pahranagat outscored them in the second half, 26-22, but came up short.

Against Sierra Lutheran, the Falcons are a strong and well-conditioned team this year and put a full-court press on the Panthers the entire game.

Maxwell had his best game with 30 points, but only three other Panthers scored. John Hansen scored eight, and Preston Higbee and Zak Smith had two points each.

The Falcons blitzed the Panthers with a 29-point second quarter for a 37-15 halftime lead. Pahranagat outscored them 27-18 in the second half, but couldn’t overcome the halftime deficit.

“We played them tough,” said Pahranagat coach Michael Strong. “We just had that one bad quarter that really got away from us; just turned the ball over too much.”

Strong said the final game at Virginia City, against Coleville, “was probably our best game as a team of the season to date. It was our most consistent effort that we have seen from all the players.”

This time the Panthers were the team to come out firing, scoring 29 points in the first quarter for a 29-8 lead. The final was 64-36.

Maxwell had a game-high 22 points. Higbee added 14 points. In all, 10 Panthers got into the scoring column. Coleville also had 10 players who scored, but none had more than five points.